Monday Open Thread

Posted on July 11, 2016 by rikyrah

Hello BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, another week out here. Let’s keep LIVING, LEARNING & LOVING.

3 Chics has not and will NOT move on. Stop police brutality and murders!

This entry was posted in Civil Rights, Current Events, Open Thread, Politics, Racial Bias, Racism and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

64 Responses to Monday Open Thread

  6. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    Reid J. Epstein ‏@reidepstein 4h4 hours ago
    At GOP Platform cmte, Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl’s Jr & Hardees, comes out against forbidding welfare benefits from being used on junk food .

    Zeke Miller ‏@ZekeJMiller 4h4 hours ago
    GOP platform committee now debating what “junk food” is. oreos vs chocolate covered oreos. Seriously.

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    Luvvie’s at it again….

    BWA HA HA HA H HA HA HA

    …………………..

    #BLAXIT: More Things We’re Taking With Us If We Leave
    Awesomely Luvvie — July 11, 2016

    This country is ungrateful as hell. You know good and damb well Black folks built this thing with our blood and sweat, literally. Now you wanna treat us like Starks at the Red Wedding and we do not appreciate it.

    If we decided to peace out and make our Black Exit (BLAXIT) like Brexit, they’d be up shit’s creek. Ulysses Burley III wrote a piece on The Salt Collective called #BLAXIT: 21 things we’re taking with us if we leave. And well, it was fantastic and you gotta read it. We just have more things we need to take with us.

    Ulysses correctly identified Beyonce, Oprah, Shonda, soul food and HeLa cells as 5 of those things. What and who else do we take with us in this BLAXIT? Well, my Facebook friends had a field day. Because if you can’t count on us for nothing else, you can ensure that our petty cup always runneth over.

    What are we taking with us when we go to New Blaxica? Hella OnyxLand? Republic of Noir? Land of Sable?

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    Man who witnessed Alton Sterling’s death files lawsuit against Baton Rouge Police Department for stealing surveillance video without warrant, locking him in car for four hours(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)
    Monday, July 11, 2016, 5:24 PM

    The convenience store owner who captured Alton Sterling’s death on video said police stole the surveillance video from his store, took his cell phone and locked him in a car for four hours.

    Abdullah Muflahi, who owns the Baton Rouge Triple S Food Mart where Sterling was killed on July 5, claims that police confiscated his phone and locked him in the car, in a lawsuit filed with the Baton Rouge district court.

    Sterling, a 37-year-old black father of five, was tackled and wrestled onto the hood of a car, then the pavement, by two police officers around 12:35 a.m. The officers fired five shots at Sterling, who was hit once in the chest and once in the back.

    In a 42-second cell phone video taken by Muflahi, one of the two officers takes a gun from Sterling’s right pocket, despite earlier reports that the man had pulled the gun on the officers.

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Micah Johnson Was Blacklisted by Black-Power Groups as ‘Unstable’

    ……………………………….

    Micah Johnson sought to join a black militant group two years before he targeted white police officers for death but was turned away after a background check.

    Reply
  16. Ametia says:
    July 11, 2016 at 3:20 pm

    DEAR RACIST COPS, MEDIA, et.al, BLACK LIVES MATTER IS NOT ROLLING THROUGH NEIGHBORHOODS KILLING BLACK UNARMED CITIZENS.

    And folks please remember that SOME folks who roll up on these protestors are no well-intentioned, and come mainly to DISRUPT, INSTIGATE, AGITATE, and PAINT you negroes as the VIOLENT ONES. WE SEE YOU.

    Reply
  17. Ametia says:
    July 11, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    HA! there’s a hashtag #alllivesdidn’tmatter circulating on Twitter

    MORE TRUTH

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      July 11, 2016 at 2:59 pm

      Six days in a jail cell with a broken neck. This is one of the most horrific stories yet in this sea of horrific stories.

      Reply
  19. Liza says:
    July 11, 2016 at 12:32 pm

    Bryan Stevenson…

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 11, 2016 at 1:14 pm

      I appreciates Bryan Stevenson and his work. Can he be CLONED?

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        July 11, 2016 at 2:16 pm

        He’s cut from the same bolt of cloth as Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall, an absolutely brilliant man. Yes, we need so many more.

        Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 11, 2016 at 2:30 pm

      The “painting with broad brush” is exactly what the RACISTs and killer cops do with POC.
      It’s called RACIAL PROFILING & STEREOTYPING.

      See how that works, Gayle King? It doesn’t make it right. IT’S THE REALITY. There is simply NO TRUST for police who come into our neighborhoods and KILL with impunity.

      We’re not reading headlines and watching videos streaming live of white folks sitting in their cars bleeding out with 4 year old child in the back seat.

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        July 11, 2016 at 2:53 pm

        Bryan Stevenson’s body language is saying, “I have to do this, I have to use every national stage that I am offered, I have to do this…” God bless him for his patience.

        Reply
      • Ametia says:
        July 11, 2016 at 3:23 pm

        Bryan has been around the block, and knows what and whom he’s dealing with.
        I was watching Norah O’Donnell’s face and body language too. Soooo SMUG. We know these stenographic, sitting behind the desk, fake news reporters have their scripts to follow, ALSO TOO.

        And when it comes to police, they are to do and say whatever to COVER for them.

        Reply
  20. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    July 11, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    Great job you’re doing there, SG2:
    https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/752553089085820929

    Reply
  22. Liza says:
    July 11, 2016 at 11:48 am

    This article is interesting and quite logical. I don’t disagree, BUT there are cases that have to be considered to have met the “high bar.” Like Eric Garner, for example, who was choked to death while begging for air. That is willful. In any other circumstances besides a cop being the murderer, this would have been prosecuted and there would have been a conviction.

    One Simple Change to the Law Could Make Prosecuting Killer Cops Easier
    Zaid Jilani
    July 7 2016, 2:57 p.m.

    GRAPHIC VIDEO ILLUSTRATING gruesome police killings of African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota has set off promises of a federal investigation, at least in the former case, but many are skeptical that it will lead to any prosecutions.

    Police involved in even these high-profile cases of abuse have rarely faced successful indictments, let alone prosecutions.

    However, at the federal level, a simple change to the law would make it more likely that abusive cops face punishment for their behavior.

    Currently, police abuse is subject largely to one federal statute enacted in 1866: Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 242, which punishes anyone who “willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

    The problem is that the statute “has nothing to do on its face with police officers or police violence,” said former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights William Yeomans. “It’s about deprivation of rights. So what you’re actually proving in these cases is that the officer acted with the intent to [deny the victim rights].”

    This willfulness standard makes it difficult to prosecute police officers. “The government has to show beyond a reasonable doubt the officer acted with willful attempt to deny the victim a right,” he said.

    “The officer had to intend to use more force than was reasonably necessary,” he noted. “Most of these cases are situations where officers are reacting quickly to something, so it can be very difficult to sort out what appeared to be reasonable to the officer at the time.”

    In other words, you’d have to prove to a jury what was going on inside of a police officer’s mind at the time — a high bar.

    He suggested a solution. Congress could lower the intent standard to “something like if the officer acted with reckless disregard.” That way, “you don’t have to actually show that the officer intended to use more force than was necessary. … If the officer recklessly used more force than was necessary, he could then be prosecuted.”

    Many in Congress have expressed their regret over cases of police abuse and police killings, but this simple change from willfulness to recklessness would make it easier for the federal government to actually prosecute them.

    https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/one-simple-change-to-the-law-could-make-prosecuting-killer-cops-easier/

    Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      July 11, 2016 at 11:54 am

      I think local/state prosecutors pass these cases on to the DOJ hoping to quiet the outrage of the public which doesn’t realize the high bar that the federal prosecutors have to achieve to get a conviction relating to civil rights.

      The prosecution should be done by a special state prosecutor instead.

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        July 11, 2016 at 12:47 pm

        Yeah, I agree that when the prosecutors are as obviously biased as Robert McCulloch in St. Louis, a special prosecutor could make a difference. But Angela Corey was a special prosecutor for George Zimmerman and she totally botched a trial that would have resulted in a conviction with a skilled prosecutor who really wanted to win. And Zimmerman wasn’t a cop, just a local scumbag. So, the concept is good, but the players often fail. We also have to look at the players if we want this to change. Whoever is to become the next Attorney General is one of the most important decisions the next president will make, and I’m really concerned about this. Again, the players. Hillary?

        Reply
      • yahtzeebutterfly says:
        July 11, 2016 at 1:00 pm

        I agree about Corey and YES! the next attorney general choice will be an important decision… I’m not feeling too optimistic

        Reply
  28. Liza says:
    July 11, 2016 at 9:12 am

    Love this, look how pretty they are…

    Ok Some Good News !!!Congratulations to #GabbyDouglas and #SimoneBiles on making the U.S. Woman's Gymnastics team!! pic.twitter.com/oGAamNR2BF— Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) July 11, 2016

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      July 11, 2016 at 9:08 am

      That’s great. You gotta love folks, our only remaining source of truth.

      Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      July 11, 2016 at 9:30 am

      Great photo. This last week I have been printing out photos of demonstration signs and keeping a notebook. So much present day history posted on internet will be harder to find later.

      The Library of Congress has started an archive of cyber history:

      The Library of Congress announced in April that it would begin archiving Twitter feeds. Some Twitter feeds had already been archived in the past as part of special projects—for instance, some tweets regarding the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor were included in the collection about Supreme Court changes. But now Twitter has plans to donate their entire archive of public content.

      Which means your tweets, my tweets, and Britney Spears’s tweets will all become a part of the archives. What is not yet clear, is exactly how all of these tweets will be used.

      “The point is not to provide a Twitter interface at the library that you can go in and use like they do on the current website,” Grotke says. “There’s talk of more of a researcher, data mining –type access to it. We’re still trying to figure out what that is exactly, but people probably won’t be able to go in and look for you specifically.”

      Excerpt from
      http://mashable.com/2010/05/30/library-of-congress-web-archive/#aa3qPMDmIPqQ

      Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 8:38 am

    Clinton, Dems embrace a progressive vision with little resistance
    07/11/16 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Bernie Sanders won’t be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate this year, but his impact on Democratic politics is hard to miss. The Washington Post reported yesterday on the party’s new national platform.
    If party platforms matter – and the jury is out on that – what happened this weekend in a sweltering Hilton conference room was remarkable. The Democratic Party shifted further to the left in one election than perhaps since 1972, embracing once-unthinkable stances on carbon pricing, police reform, abortion rights, the minimum wage and the war on drugs. It did so with very little ideological resistance and a lot of comity between the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

    “We have produced by far the most progressive platform that this party has seen in multiple generations,” said Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), co-chairman of the platform committee.
    It’s worth pausing to appreciate the irony: it wasn’t long ago that Sanders’ campaign team demanded Malloy’s ouster, considering him too moderate and too supportive of Clinton to oversee the platform process fairly. And yet, there was the governor, announcing the progressives’ victory.

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 8:31 am

    What We Can Learn from History About the Advancement of Civil Rights
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    July 11, 2016 9:19 AM

    t probably isn’t a coincidence that, after the events of last week, I found solace in the words of Robert Kennedy the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968. One of the reasons his words resonate so well is that there are some strong parallels between what was happening then and now. I’m not the only one to notice. Comparing/contrasting our current situation to what was going on that year is a topic that has been covered by Jonathan Chait, Josh Marshall, Ross Douthat and Julian Zelizer.

    Marshall points out one thing that is important to keep in mind about the lead-up to that year.

    Many younger Americans have vivid memories of the LA Riots of 1992 in which 55 people died and some 2,000 were injured. But the late 1960s witnessed a series of comparable riots across the country. Indeed, in a number of cases in cities which simply never truly recovered. Watts 1965, 34 dead, over 1000 injured. Detroit 1967, 43 dead, over 1000 injured. Newark 1967, 26 dead, almost 1000 injured.

    It’s also worth remembering that just two months after Kennedy talked about the Mindless Menace of Violence in this country, he himself was assassinated. In addition to his brother JFK, national figures like Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers met the same end. Marshall goes on to sum things up.

    As you’ll note, these examples were all before calendar 1968 and don’t include the numerous urban riots during 1968 itself or other ‘smaller’ ones during the preceding years. Indeed, a good deal of what made 1968 ‘1968’ was the way in which a building momentum of violence, civil unrest and a seeming breakdown of the society itself, which had been escalating in the two or three previous years, built to such a pitch of intensity that it seemed the entire society might be overturned, that there might never be a going back.

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 8:05 am

    Trump backer says he’s running ‘as a racial healer’
    07/11/16 08:00 AM—UPDATED 07/11/16 08:49 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump has been called all sorts of things over the course of his controversial presidential campaign, but yesterday was probably the first time anyone, anywhere, said he’s positioned to play the role of “racial healer.”

    CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R), a vice presidential contender, and the host noted that he’s heard from “a number of Latino-Americans, Muslim-Americans, Native-Americans, Jewish-Americans, African-Americans, all expressing concerns about some of the things Donald Trump has said.” The Republican governor insisted most Americans have the same security concerns, regardless of who wins the election.

    It led to this amazing exchange.

    TAPPER: Respectfully, governor, you didn’t answer my question. Do you think Donald Trump has campaigned as a racial healer?

    FALLIN: I think he is trying to campaign as a racial healer. I think that has been part of his message….

    In case you’re curious, the governor said this with a straight face.

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 8:03 am

    How Black Lives Matter and the Police Can Unite
    They can take on the most anti-law enforcement group in America: the NRA.
    by Steven Waldman
    July 11, 2016 8:51 AM

    Over the weekend, more and more voices responded to the killings in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Minneapolis to urge empathy. Both police and African Americans feel under siege, it was noted that a better “conversation” must occur.

    But improved relations usually come from working together on a mutual endeavor, not just talking. Ironically, the issue that can best unite these communities is one of the most divisive: gun control.

    The most anti-police organization in America is not Black Lives Matter – it’s the NRA. In the past, they responded to the proposal to ban semi-automatic weapons by attacking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as “jack-booted government thugs.” For years, the NRA has fought restrictions on “cop killer” bullets that pierce the protective armor worn by law enforcement officers. They’ve opposed most gun control measures requested by police.

    Not only do they make the police’s job harder, they peddle the lie that America’s police are so ineffective – anarchy already reigns — that regular people must arm themselves. That’s at the heart of the increasingly dominant notion — the most noxious “new idea” of the last thirty years — that the only way to stop a bad guy with a guy is a good civilian guy with a gun. Think about it: the answer used to be that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a policeman with a gun. No more. The NRA’s big message: the police are not the answer.

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 8:01 am

    An Opportunity for #NeverTrump Republicans to Save Face
    by D.R. Tucker
    July 10, 2016 3:30 PM

    Let’s face it: the #NeverTrump movement is an admission of embarrassment on the part of veteran Republicans, an acknowledgment that the Southern Strategy was suicidal, a concession that as a result of fifty years of playing to ignorant fears, the GOP base is largely comprised of people who think the term “animal husbandry” refers to bestiality. You can’t blame these veteran Republicans for wanting to wash their hands of their creation–and you can’t blame them for seeking alternate political routes:

    For some Massachusetts Republicans, the return of Bill Weld — the law-and-order Yankee who charmed his way into two terms as governor of a liberal state — is nothing short of face-saving.

    Finally, they have a reason to show up on Election Day.

    “I think for a lot of Republicans, especially in a state like Massachusetts, it gives us an option,” said Virginia Buckingham, a Republican who once worked as Weld’s chief of staff, and will vote for him this fall. “We were kind of in a difficult position facing voting for Donald Trump.”

    Weld’s reemergence as a vice presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson has been viewed largely as another curiosity in a crazy election cycle in which, it seems, anything might happen…

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 7:56 am

    Conservatives Just Lost the War to Privatize the VA
    by Paul Glastris
    July 8, 2016

    Two years ago, in the wake of a VA scandal involving employees at some VHA hospitals fudging data over long wait times, Congress passed legislation that attempted to reform the system. It did so in two main ways.

    First, it created a so-called “Choice Program,” whereby vets who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility or had to wait more than 30 days for an appointment would be eligible to receive care from private doctors outside the VA system. This was widely seen as a trial run at outsourcing most or all VA health care

    Second, the law empaneled an independent Commission on Care to study the VA and recommend sweeping reforms, with privatization very much on the agenda. Indeed, representatives from two Koch brothers-allied pro-privatization groups were given seats on the commission, as were several executives from major medical centers that stand to profit from outsourcing VA care. The fix, it seemed, was in.

    Neither the Choice Program’s implementation nor the Commission on Care’s deliberations has gotten much coverage in the mainstream media. But as regular Washington Monthly readers know, we’ve been watching both very closely indeed.

    Among other things, we reported that research commissioned by Congress and ratified by the Commission concluded that while the VA has major problems, such as severe shortages of some doctors, VA health care nevertheless performs as well or better than the private sector on nearly every metric of quality, including average wait times to see doctors.

    Meanwhile, the presidential candidates also took positions on the VA issue. Donald Trump’s campaign backed aggressive privatization. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, announced her opposition to privatization but support for expanding existing “purchased care” programs wherein the VA contracts with outside providers to alleviate care shortages but maintains tight oversight to guarantee information-sharing, care integration, and quality and cost controls.

    On Wednesday, the Commission released its final report. To the surprise of most observers, the commission rejected privatization as the solution. While detailing a host of serious failings with the VA, the report notes that “care delivered by VA is in many ways comparable or better in clinical quality to that generally available in the private sector.” It concludes that the new Choice Program was “flawed” in both its design and execution, adding that “the program has aggravated wait times and frustrated veterans, private-sector health care providers participating in networks, and V.H.A. alike.” Rather than wholesale outsourcing, the report recommends addressing issues of access by “standing up integrated veteran-centric, community-based delivery networks,” a plan roughly similar to the one Hillary Clinton had called for.

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 7:54 am

    Would Republicans accept a pro-choice VP candidate?
    07/11/16 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen
    When putting together a list of possible running mates for Donald Trump, it’s not hard to rattle off the names of assorted governors and members of Congress. But the Washington Post threw the political world a curve-ball over the weekend, reporting that the presumptive Republican nominee is “slightly bored” with the usual suspects and is “increasingly intrigued by the idea of tapping retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn” for his ticket.

    And while this article came as something of a surprise, it’s easy to see why the GOP candidate would be enamored with the retired general. Remember, the one person in the world who most impresses Donald J. Trump is, of course, Donald J. Trump. Mike Flynn has a record of military service the presumptive nominee can’t match, but Flynn is also a political amateur with literally no experience in elected office, a prominent anti-Muslim voice, a fierce critic of President Obama, and someone who’s a little too cozy with Vladimir Putin.

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 6:36 am

    Public Schools? To Kansas Conservatives they are now called ” Government Schools “😠😠😠

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/us/schools-kansas-conservatives.html?smid=pl-share&referer=

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    July 11, 2016 at 6:30 am

    Good Morning 😊, Everyone 😆

    Reply

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